THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Jose Fernandez, a taxi driver in Thiruvananthapuram, is excited about the legal victory of taxi drivers’ union in the United Kingdom against Uber, a global ride-hailing company with a presence in the state.The UK’s top court has ruled that drivers are entitled to their rights which included breaks, holiday pay and minimum wage. Lack of these rights prompted Jose to stop working for Uber two years back to start a home grown company called Qbr.
But he could not mimic the business model of the Silicon Valley-based multinational company and the venture almost collapsed.Trade unions hailed the verdict as a welcome move in the changed situation. “We have always wanted drivers to be considered as workers and avail of service benefits. The court ruling could be of help to the drivers here,” said CITU Ernakulam president K N Gopinath. He was stabbed after inaugurating the auto-taxi drivers’ protest against an online aggregator in 2016.
Uber started its full-fledged operation in the state in 2016. Later another company, Ola, also started operation.The companies faced initial trouble to get acceptance among traditional taxi drivers who feared that the new model would affect their livelihood.
“The companies changed their policies as more people joined. As a result the drivers ended up earning lesser and lesser forcing people like me to quit,” said Jose. Though the drivers’ union took up the issue with the government, it expressed its limitations to deal with the new model.“Our role is limited at present. However, the UK court ruling will help the drivers here to raise the issue once again. The department will extend full support to help them get job security and better income,” said Transport Minister A K Saseendran.
He said the state should become a party to the petition if the drivers take it up in court. Earlier he had announced in the Legislative Assembly that a plan would be formulated as an alternative arrangement to challenge the monopoly of online taxi aggregators. However it did not materialise.Though the labour department took a stand to consider drivers as regular workers, the online taxi companies still consider them as gig workers or workers. The drivers’ union unsuccessfully complained to the labour department almost two year back to give directions to the companies.
“We did not have the authority to control the companies. So after conciliatory talks we referred the case to labour court for a decision,” said Sreelal K, Additional Labour Commissioner. The court is yet to announce its decision. The new Industrial Relations Code, 2020, passed by Parliament last year, offers some hope. The new code has defined gig workers and it will help them claim benefits, said Sreelal.